Trials & Hearings

Here I will give you some basic information relating to hearings and trials. Regardless of whether your case involves paternity, custody, visitation or support, the information in this blog will be necessary for you. Instructions for completing many essential forms will be found here and late, I will have you frequently refer back to blogs and instructions. There are many things that you may need to do to prepare for your hearing. These include scheduling a court date, obtaining a hearing notice, preparing any witnesses you intend to call, sending out subpoenas for witnesses and documents arranging for your children to testify, becoming familiar with courtroom proceedings, and some of the basic Rules of Evidence. A talented & highly respected St Petersburg Family Law Attorney in divorce can handle this for you.  Preparing the questions you will ask in determining the order it was presented as part of their case, so it makes sense to the judge. Please pay attention to later blogs and more throughout.  If things are really bad, it may be necessary for you to hire a bankruptcy attorney in the St. Petersburg area.

Setting a Court Date

The terms trial and hearing often used interchangeably. That’s actually a particular type of hearing. Both terms work so formal proceedings before someone who will decide a legal matter. Issues in dispute at the time, may be presented to the judge or an attorney.  These types of matters don’t require a court to hear certain matters. So the titles are given the title of General Magistrate or Hearing Officer. Decision of a general manager is  not final and must be approved by the judge. Generally the term Hearing Officer like to any matter heard by General Master means their decision must be checked.

What if the party does respond or fails to respond and you felt you would need to get a hearing date? Getting a hearing date that is a simple matter. Call the secretary or judicial system of the judge assigned to your case do not know what your case number and ask for the name, and phone number of the judge assigned to your case. Usually this phone number can be found in the government section of your phone book. Tell the secretary what type of petition you filed and that he needs to set a hearing date.

The secretary may ask you how long the hearing will take. The answer will depend upon the type of petition to file. The petition to establish paternity may take several hours if witnesses are to be called is supposed to have their expert witnesses who will explain the results of scientific testing. For custody dispute there will be several witnesses for both parties which can result in a couple of hours to several days. Petition for change child support they only require 10 minutes of all necessary financial information has been provided by both parties. More about the length of time for a year and will be discussed later on.

It is a good idea to ask for the most amount of time you think it will take. If you don’t finish the hearing in the time allotted it may be several weeks before you can get another hearing date to finish. General guideline would be to allow about 20 to 30 minutes to each Witness. But this might have time to use a double a triple if an attorney is questioning a witness. Do not forget to figure in the number of witness that the other party made for it the secretary will give you a date and time for the hearing they will also need to know where the hearing will take place. A secretary for the location. You will need to know the street address of the courthouse in the room number for another location within the building.